HOWIE STALWICK | What's this? Hope in Marinerville?

1. About Time: Sorta strange, the Mariners actually giving fans cause to be revved up for a new season. Been a while. A postseason appearance is probably too much to ask — not impossible — but a high 80s win total seems doable. Win or lose, the shorter fences and better hitters should make for a much more entertaining product.

2. Leach Jab: Love that $25,000 bonus WSU gives Mike Leach for Apple Cup wins. Leach’s first Cougars team pumped some life into a fading rivalry by knocking off the Huskies in overtime last season. The colorful Cougars coach spiced things up further when he pointed out that no money changed hands when he filled out his NCAA basketball tournament bracket last week. “Not in the Washington way of filling out pools,” Leach said dryly. Leach, of course, was referring to the betting scandal that led to Rick Neuheisel’s ouster as coach of the Huskies in 2003.

3. The Gags?: The Zags are still reeling from their latest post-eason faux pas — one reporter friend says the team should now be known as the “Gags” — but GU coaches barely dropped by Spokane long enough to change clothes before resuming the never-ending hunt for new talent. Master recruiter Tommy Lloyd is Gonzaga’s lead man overseas, and he’s thankful the Bulldogs’ recruiting budget allows for frequent trips to foreign lands. Ben Howland, the recently jettisoned head coach of UCLA, recalls that Gonzaga’s recruiting budget was $10,000 when he was a graduate assistant at the school in 1981-82. An old car was stashed in San Francisco to save money on rentals, and assistant coaches occasionally slept on hotel room floors, courtesy of sympathetic rivals who paid for the rooms. Howland worked part-time at Spokane’s old Playfair horse racing track “for about $5 an hour” to try to make ends meet when he was at Gonzaga.

4. Heat-in’ Up: What’s left for LeBron and the Miami Heat? An 82-0 season? Mass forfeits by helpless rivals? A 100-point, 50-rebound, 30-assist game for LeBron? He hasn’t done that yet, has he? The man is remarkable, and he plays SO hard.

5. Less Is Best: Can we all agree that every major pro sports season runs too long? Every single one. And in baseball, even spring training is way, way, WAY too long.

6. Betcha Didn’t Know: Prior to major league baseball games, umpires rub up several dozen balls with Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud to remove the shine and slickness. Blackburne, a former Philadelphia (now Oakland) Athletics coach, began selling the mud — which he found near his New Jersey home at a river site that remains a secret — after an umpire complained to him about the poor quality of balls in 1938. Plenty of minor league and college teams also use the mud, which costs $75 for a 4-pound tub.

7. Your Weekly Smile: Bill Walton, former NBA star who now works as a long-winded sportscaster: “We got 5 minutes to speak at the (world basketball) Hall of Fame induction ceremony. At the 17-minute mark, someone from the NBA said, ‘C’mon, Walton, wrap this up; your speech is lasting longer than your career.’”